Mark 8:31-9:1 Service Part 1

[00:00:03] We will read together in Mark, chapter 8 from verse 27. Mark, chapter 8 from verse 27 dot I'm reading in the Revised Standard Version. [00:00:24] And Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea, Philippi. And on the way he asked his disciples, who do men say that I am? And they told him, john the Baptist and others say Elijah and others, one of the prophets. [00:00:46] And he asked them, but who do you say that I am? Peter answered him, you are the Messiah or the Christ. [00:00:56] And he charged them to tell no one about him. [00:01:00] And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed. And after three days rise again. And he said this plainly. [00:01:18] And Peter took him and began to rebuke him. [00:01:24] But turning, and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, get behind me, Satan, for you are not on the side of God, but of men. [00:01:38] And he called to him the multitude with his disciples and said to them, if any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it. And whoever loses his life for my sake and the Gospels will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? [00:02:15] For what can a man give in return for his life? [00:02:20] For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation of him, Will the Son of man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels? And he said to them, truly I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God come with power. [00:02:51] And after six days, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John. And led them up a high mountain, apart by themselves. And he was transfigured before them. And his garments became glistening, intensely white. As no fuller on earth could bleach them. And there appeared to them, Elijah with Moses. And they were talking to Jesus. And Peter said to Jesus, master, it's well that we're here. Let's make three booths. One for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah. For he did not know what to say. For they were exceedingly afraid. [00:03:33] And a cloud overshadowed them. And a voice came out of the cloud. This is my beloved Son. [00:03:43] Listen to him. [00:03:46] And suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone with them but Jesus. Only now, this week, we come to the last section of this second division of the Gospel according to Mark, which I entitled the servant of the lord at work. [00:04:15] That is, this last section is from the 31st verse of chapter 8 to the 52nd verse of chapter 10. [00:04:32] Now we've seen the Lord at work throughout these chapters, expressing and revealing in Himself the character of true service. We have seen him as the literal fulfillment of the prophecies in Isaiah, particularly, for instance in chapter 61, from verses 1 to 3. The spirit of the Lord is upon me. He has anointed me to preach good news to the poor or the meek, and so on and so on. We've seen that in this division it is really a literal fulfillment of those verses. As Christ has met fallen mankind in all its need, whether that need is physical, whether that need is material, or whether that need above all is spiritual. [00:05:41] We have seen Christ calling out his own and appointing them to be with him in his service, teaching them and training them to be servants of the Lord with Himself. [00:06:01] We have also seen that the objective of his training was to bring them supremely beyond everything else to an essential and progressive discovery of Himself, out of which everything else would flow. He was not interested in people who could just work miracles. He was not interested in people who could just preach lovely sermons or even messages. He was not interested in people who could cast out demons, tremendous as that is, and sometimes necessary as well. He was interested, above and beyond everything else, that they should discover who he was and what he was. Because it was out of that kind of discovery that everything else issued. [00:07:09] Now in this section, he begins to reveal the fundamental principle of true service. [00:07:21] That's why the last section we dealt with last week and this section are two of the most vital parts in the whole Gospel according to Mark. [00:07:32] First, the discovery of the Lord Jesus Christ himself, who he is and what he is. And then the discovery of the fundamental principle of all true and acceptable service as far as God is concerned. For the first time, Christ begins now to reveal the only basis for service acceptable to God. [00:08:10] In this section, he goes to the very root of the matter of service. Indeed, he goes to the very root of the matter of the Christian life and church life. Whatever level you look at, the cross of Christ is the principle of true service, nothing less. [00:08:44] Unerringly, Christ puts his finger upon the only way a servant of God contrived, whether it be the Son himself or whether it be sons such as you and I. [00:09:09] We begin to see in this section what is involved in true service, the cost which is entailed in following Christ, as well as the glory that will follow, that will come, that will result. [00:09:34] There are therefore in this section two main things, two main strands, two main themes, if you like, which together make one vital lesson. [00:09:52] Firstly, for Christ, service meant the cross. [00:10:04] That's the first strand. [00:10:07] Repeatedly, Christ tells them that he has got to suffer to die and on the third day rise again from the dead. If you take your Bible and turn to mark and chapter eight and verse 31, we read these words and he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. Chapter 9, verse 9. As they were coming down the mountain, he charged them to tell no one what they had seen until the Son of Man should have risen from the dead. Verse 12. And he said to them, elijah does come first to restore all things. And how is it written of the Son of Man that he should suffer many things and be treated with contempt? [00:11:23] Chapter 9, verse 31. [00:11:28] For he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, the Son of Man will be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And when he is killed, after three days he will rise. But they did not understand the saying, and they were afraid to ask him. Chapter 10, verse 33 saying, Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him to the Gentiles. And they will mock him and spit upon him, and scourge him and kill him. And after three days he will rise, and same chapter, verse 45. For the son of man also came, not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. So the first strand we see throughout this whole section that for Christ service meant the cross, nothing less. [00:12:38] The second strand we find throughout these chapters arises out of the first. For us, service means the cross too, nothing less. [00:12:55] Repeatedly through these chapters, Christ draws our attention to the simple fact that if we would serve the Lord, the same cross must be the principle of our service also. [00:13:14] Take again your Bible. Chapter 8, verse 34. If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake, and the Gospels will save it. Chapter 9, verse 34. 35. Sorry. Chapter 9, verse 35. [00:13:53] If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all. Chapter 9, verse 49. And 50. For every one will be salted with fire, and every Sacrifice will be salted with salt. Salt is good. But if the salt has lost its saltness, how will you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another. Chapter 10, verse 21. [00:14:30] And Jesus, looking upon him, loved him, and said to him, you lack one thing. Go sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven and come, follow me. [00:14:50] And then chapter 10 to around chapter 1039. [00:15:01] And they said to him, we are able. And Jesus said to them, the cup that I drink, you will drink. And with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized. [00:15:16] And verse 43. But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant. And whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. [00:15:36] Well, now we've got two strands then, in those chapters. The first is, for Christ, service meant the cross, nothing less. The second, for us, service means the cross also nothing less. And those two strands together make one vital, important lesson. The principle of all divine service is the cross of Christ, or Calvary, if you like. [00:16:20] We'll have a little closer look at that in a moment. As to what it means, it is a most significant fact and well worthy of note, and I hope everyone will take note of this, that Christ never mentioned his death without referring to his resurrection. [00:16:44] Now, isn't that an extraordinary thing in all these chapters? But in fact, everywhere you will find that Christ never himself referred to his death without also referring to his resurrection. Even when he speaks to us of the crusts of taking, he always speaks of the life we gain as a result. [00:17:13] Always he speaks of the glory that lies ahead by the way of the grass. Always he speaks of the increase that will come about the harvest that will result from the cross. This, I believe, is a most important point. [00:17:36] There is here no melancholic and morbid attraction to death in itself, no kind of centering on suffering, as if there is something inherently good about suffering. [00:18:01] You don't find any of that in Scripture. That is something that belongs to us fallen men and women. [00:18:10] What we find is a steady looking through suffering and death to the end of the Lord. [00:18:20] Now you've got this in Hebrews 12:2, looking unto Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and hath sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. He endured the cross for the joy that was set before him. [00:18:50] He steadily looked at the joy that was beyond the cross. Now that is scriptural. [00:19:00] So be very, very careful. Sometimes you get people getting a bit sentimental about the cross and about suffering and all the rest. Be very, very careful of that always in the word of God, suffering and death is a means to an end. And the end is always life. Increase, glory, honor, joy. You've got the same thing if you turn back. Taking the classic example in the Bible in James 5:11. Behold, we call them blessed that endured. Ye have heard of the patience of Job and have seen the end of the Lord. How that the Lord is full of pity and merciful. You've seen the end of the Lord. Now there is something I think we ought to take note of. [00:19:56] Peter's great confession in chapter eight, from verse 2737 to 30. Peter's great confession, when he actually acted as spokesman for the rest of the disciples, as so often was the case, is not only the climax of the last section that we dealt with last week, but it is the fountainhead of this one. All Christ's dealings with them, all his training of them, was to, as we saw it in the previous section, was to bring them to this basic discovery of Himself as the Anointed One of God. [00:20:46] The rock out of which everything would be quarried, upon which everything would be built, through which the very authority of the throne of God would be given to them. [00:20:59] It was a discovery of himself and all his dealings. All his training had that one objective in mind. Now we discover that in this section he began to reveal to them all about the cross. As a result of that discovery, as a direct outcome of Peter's great confession. Thou art the Messiah, the Anointed One, the Son of God, the Lord Jesus began to reveal for the first time what his supreme mission and work was. Now it is an extraordinary fact that you will look in vain in all the Gospels for any mention at all of the supreme work and mission of the Lord Jesus. Before Peter's great confidence, he was absolutely silent. There wasn't a single whisper of the cross except as far as Mary was concerned, and Joseph, and possibly Simeon and Anna. But as far as his disciples were concerned, he never as much as whispered a thing about the cross that was to come. As far as they were concerned, it was all a matter of miracles and mighty works and people being fed and stormed, being stilled. And the great Messiah they had discovered in the Lord Jesus Christ, the one great David's greater son, the one who'd been promised for so long, had come at last. There was no hint as to what his supreme work and mission was but the moment those words were torn out of the spirit of Peter, thou art the Anointed One. From that moment, the Lord Jesus wasted no time. He began to reveal to them what his supreme mission and work was. [00:23:04] He didn't speak to them in parables. He didn't speak to them in veiled terms. He didn't speak to them of his death or his passion in allegorical form. He spoke to them in plain, blunt words so that it was unmistakably clear as to what he had come for. [00:23:33] The Lord Jesus, of course. Do I need to say it here? Had always been. [00:23:39] Had always been quite clear as to what his work was and what it involved. He had never been able to speak to them about it because they had never really discovered him. How true this is of many of us. [00:23:59] The Lord's not able to tell us some things because we've never discovered Him. For it is a fact that the deeper we discover the Lord, the greater the revelation he brings to us. [00:24:11] It seems that our discovery of the Lord creates a capacity, a spiritual capacity, in us for understanding spiritual things. [00:24:25] It's instructive to note that it was only after the disciples had declared who Christ was, begun to see who he was and what he was, albeit very dimly, as we shall find out as Mark proceeds. [00:24:51] It was only after they had come to that dim apprehension of his person that he began to reveal what his work was and the glory that would follow. For instance, he never spoke of his second coming. He never spoke of his advent in glory, until first they had said, thou art the Christ. Now you can all go home and look for the whole of the Gospel. And you'll find that you won't find it at all in the three Synoptic Gospels. [00:25:20] What does this teach us? [00:25:22] It teaches us another great lesson. [00:25:26] Perhaps it's an aside. But it's a great lesson, even if it's only an aside. It is this. [00:25:33] This is an illustration of the principle that to him that has, more will be given and from him that has not, what he has will be taken away. [00:25:43] You've got that in Mark 4. 25. Remember the parable of the lamp? [00:25:50] It's an illustration of it. The moment they said, thou art the Christ, more was given to them. The moment they discovered who he was, more was given to them. [00:26:01] Every time you make a discovery of the Lord Jesus, more is given to you. Every time you enter into more of what is yours in Christ, more is given to you. To him that has, more will be given. It sounds so unjust, but it isn't it is the basis of all spiritual education, of all spiritual growth and increase. [00:26:24] We ought also to note that whereas the former section consists mostly of miracles, as we discovered last week, this section consists mostly of teaching and short discourses. [00:26:41] There are only two miracles in this section. [00:26:45] The demoniac boy in chapter nine, from verse 14 to 29, and blind Bartimaeus, chapter 10, verse 46, 52. [00:27:00] And we have also. [00:27:02] It cannot be called a miracle. [00:27:05] It was a historical fact, or so are miracles. But I don't think we can call it a miracle. We have the record of the transfiguration in chapter 9, the transfiguration of Christ in glory in chapter 9, verses 2 to 8. [00:27:22] Is it not also another very significant fact, as an aside, that as the last section ended with sight being given to a blind man, so this final section of this division ends with sight being given to a blind man. I can't help. Perhaps I'm being fanciful in seeing. First of all, we must see who Christ is and what he is. And then we must, must see this vital fundamental principle of true service. [00:28:01] However we look at it, it surely is no coincidence that Mark finally records at the end of this great section the story of another blind man being given his sight. Well, now we come. [00:28:17] You will take your Bible to the first passage in chapter eight, from verse 31 to chapter nine, verse one. And that's as far as we're going to go. [00:28:33] The principle of the cross explained. Now, it is all very well for us to talk about the principle of the cross, but what on earth do we mean? We Christians band around terms. We speak of the way of the cross. We speak of the death of the cross. We speak of the suffering of the cross. We speak of the principle of the cross. We speak sometimes of the secret of the cross. What do we mean? [00:29:05] What do we mean? [00:29:08] In these first verses of this final section, this second division of Mark, we have the principle of the cross explained. [00:29:24] This is how I would take it. I would say the Son of man must suffer and be killed, and after three days rise again. [00:29:40] If any man come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. [00:29:55] The principle of the cross. [00:30:00] Explain. [00:30:03] We have to understand something that naturally, Today in the 20th century, most of us, being Gentiles, wouldn't understand anyway that the disciples, along with most of God's people at that time, looked for the coming of a triumphant Messiah, of whom so much was said in the Old Testament. [00:30:33] Now, you must get this quite clear. [00:30:36] The majority of God's people If not, almost 99.5% were looking expectantly for the coming of a Messiah. [00:30:51] And that Messiah, according to the Scripture, was one who was going to be absolutely triumphant. He was going to reign and rule on David's throne. He was the one who was going to make the lion lie down with the lamb. He was the one who was going to cause little children to dance through the streets of Jerusalem. He was the one who was going to make Israel as it were, a light above burnished lamp through to the very ends of the earth. It was a never decreasing glory. [00:31:26] It was all triumph from beginning to end. That was the Messiah. They looked for an absolutely triumphant Messiah. [00:31:37] Their concept of him was one of earthly grandeur and earthly power and authority. [00:31:50] There are many prophecies in the Old Testament about a suffering Messiah, such as Psalm 22, Isaiah 53, Zechariah, chapter 13. [00:32:10] These were not understood and therefore were ignored or overlooked. A very telling comment on the capacity of us all to overlook and bypass what we don't understand. [00:32:26] And therefore, in spite of the fact that we as Christians cannot understand how it would be possible for anyone to understand that the Messiah who had been so faithfully predicted by so many was not known to be one who was going to suffer. We just can't understand why it wasn't generally known. But the fact was that the popular conception of the Messiah allowed no place for such an idea. A suffering Messiah, a dying Messiah. [00:33:06] It was just beyond the bounds of credibility and therefore it was completely overlooked and bypassed. Now, there is no doubt that even though the disciples had declared that Jesus was the Messiah, they only understood him to be the Messiah in terms of triumph, nothing else. [00:33:36] Nothing else. [00:33:38] When Peter, when that tremendous confession was torn out of Peter, thou art the Messiah. [00:33:44] And the others rejoiced, there's no doubt. Everything began to fall into places, of course, of course. Feeding of the 5,000, feeding of the fourth. And of course, it's the Messiah. Of, of course. How silly we were. Oh, the storm, of course, calmed in an instant. With a word, the walking on the sea. Of course. How did we, how could we be so foolish? It's the Messiah, of course. Casting out of demons, those demons crying out, thou art the most, the Son of the Most High. Of course it's the Messiah. All those people being healed even by the touch, by touching just the hem of his garment. Of course. People being raised from the dead, it's the Messiah, it's the Messiah. [00:34:32] You know, even years, not years, but months afterwards, they were still thinking like this. Listen to this Luke and chapter. Luke and chapter 24 and verse 21. [00:34:51] But we hoped that it was he who should redeem Israel. It was the two walking to Emmaus. Do you know, the only thing they said about the Lord was a prophet. [00:35:07] Two faithful disciples walking disconsolate home from Jerusalem. [00:35:15] We thought it was. Now, of course, we all think, oh, how wonderful. We thought it was he who would redeem. They weren't thinking of redemption through blood. [00:35:24] They were thinking of a political national deliverance in Acts, chapter one, even after they'd seen him raised from the dead and they knew that it was he. Listen to what they say. It's almost amusing, the cheek of it. [00:35:47] Acts, chapter 1, verse 6. They Therefore, when they were come together, asked him, saying, lord, dost thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? [00:35:57] They meant the political authority to Israel. What's happened, of course, since 1948 and particularly in 1967, do you at this time restore political sovereignty to the Jewish people? [00:36:14] You see, their whole concept was of a Messiah who was one of political might as well as spiritual authority. One who was an earthly monarch, an earthly savior, an earthly redeemer. That was their idea. [00:36:31] So that is the reason why Christ began to show them that the Messiah was predestined by God to suffer and to die before he fully triumphed and entered upon his reign. Now, if you turn to mark chapter 8 and verse 31, will you notice the Word must. [00:36:58] He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected. Must be rejected by the elders of chief priests, guards, and be killed. Must be killed. And after three days rise again. [00:37:14] The point the Lord was trying to get over to them was this, that he was predestined to suffer and to die before he entered into his triumph and reign. [00:37:32] In other words, what he was trying to tell them was there was no other way for him to fulfill the purpose of God. [00:37:42] No other way for even the Son of God himself, servant of the Lord, to finish the work that God had given him to do other than dying. [00:38:00] For the Messiah, service meant supremely the death of a gentile cross. [00:38:14] And that cross was the ultimate expression of the principle upon which his whole life and service was based. [00:38:30] It was no sudden laying down of his life, no sudden decision, as it were, finally to give himself to the cross. [00:38:40] He went to the cross as an ultimate and complete expression of the principle upon which his whole life was lived and his service given. [00:38:53] From the moment Christ entered this world born of a woman, he accepted the cross. [00:39:06] His work there would have been no incarnation, no humbling of God to be born of a woman. No. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth. [00:39:26] There would have been none of that but for the fact that he accepted the cross, laid his glory aside and made himself of no reputation and was born of a woman. [00:39:46] At his baptism, 30 years after his entry into this world, he again publicly accepted the cross as his work and committed himself at the beginning of his ministry to the cross as the principal of it. [00:40:12] That life of service could never have been fulfilled if he had retained even the smallest right to himself. But to use Philip's translation of Mark chapter 8 and verse 34, he gave up all right to himself when he came into this world, and he ratified it again in his baptism when he gave up all right to himself a second time and went forward into his service. When we come to the transfiguration, we shall fight again. Again he turns away from the glory and lays it aside for the third time and comes down to meet a terrible situation. [00:40:58] Demon. Possessed. Possessed. Degrading. [00:41:04] When he could have stepped into the kingdom at that moment. Now at this point he was moving steadily forward to that eternal, eternal appointment at Calvary. [00:41:21] This was altogether too much for dear old Peter. [00:41:26] He was a good Jew. [00:41:29] He reflected all the current feeling and popularly held conceptions of his day. He was just absolutely normal. Dear Peter wasn't eccentric, not abnormal, down to earth fisherman, who in many ways, singular as he may have been in character, was a man who represented people, the people of his day. It was altogether too much for the Lord. [00:41:59] For Peter. He put up with it, evidently for a while. And as the New English Bible puts it, finally he took the Lord by the army and began to rebuke him. [00:42:13] In other words, in our Lord. Enough of that, enough of that. We can't consider a Messiah. I'm the one, after all, who said, thou art the Messiah. We can't consider a Messiah who's going to suffer and die by the Gentiles on a Gentile gibbet. Never. Never. [00:42:33] You see, he was ashamed. It was a disgrace. It was a shame. It was something that was an offence to him. [00:42:41] That's in verse 33. You'll find that it was altogether too much for him. [00:42:55] Peter's mind staggered at the thought of a Messiah who was going to suffer. [00:43:10] And Jesus began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer. And in verse 32, Peter took him and began to rebuke him. [00:43:22] So as the Lord began to reveal the cross as his supreme Work. Peter began to rebuke him and say, no, certainly not. Now that's us in a nutshell. [00:43:34] I don't know how many lives in this room that doesn't sum up in a nutshell. [00:43:39] How many of so called evangelical Christians are not summed up in that? The moment the Lord begins to reveal the real principle of service, of Christian life, of church life, we say never. [00:43:51] Not me. [00:43:53] Rather go and sit and listen in a nice place where we can just hear a nice little message or any of that cross business. Not when it comes, don't mind being saved, but anything beyond that. [00:44:07] That's why Christ dealt so severely with Peter as so often he has to deal with us severely on the same matter. Now don't you ever think that the Lord Jesus is meek and mild when it comes to this kind of thing, has an altogether unhealthy conception of the Lord Jesus, that he's so woolly, so vague, so sentimental. [00:44:33] Listen to him. Out of my way, Satan. Out of my way, Satan. Now I dare to say that if the Lord Jesus spoke to you like that, you'd be deeply offended. [00:44:45] Even if he said out of my way lamps or whoever it is, Rotten or Michael or Bob or whoever it is, we would still say, what an offensive way to put it. [00:44:58] All right, all right, all right, don't get indignant. [00:45:03] Only expressed an opinion how we generally we would be. We all sort of read this with a kind of halo of romance around it. You see, when you realize what the Lord said, it was like a bolt from the blue. It was like a blow between the eyes. [00:45:22] Out of my way, Satan. Not even Peter. Out of my way, Satan. Now don't you get the idea that he was looking somewhere else for some invisible person, was saying, out of my way, Satan. There was Peter. [00:45:41] He looked straight into Peter's eyes and said, out of my way, Satan. [00:45:47] Remember, Peter had got hold of his arm. He was blocking his way. [00:45:53] Out of my way. [00:45:57] Of course, our old authorized Version puts it, get thee behind me, Satan. [00:46:03] The New English Bible says, away with you, Satan. [00:46:08] Phillip says, out of my way, Satan. [00:46:15] But listen to what follows. Our authorized Version puts it in words that we've become somehow adjusted to. Used to, thou savorest not the things of God, but of men. The Revised Standard Version puts it like, are not on the side of God, but of men. [00:46:36] That's another blow between the eyes. Or as the New English Bible puts it succinctly, you think as men think, not as God thinks. [00:46:54] What a severe rebuke this reveals to us. More clearly than anything else that if we are not prepared to accept the principle of the cross in service, we cannot be on God's side. Let me say that absolutely I don't care who you are. You can be the Pope or the Archbishop of Canterbury, or some great evangelical priest if you are not prepared. If I am not prepared for the principle of the cross to be the basis of my service, I am not on God's side. [00:47:31] I may be saved, but I am not on God's side. [00:47:36] If the great Bishop of Rome could be called Satan, if Peter, the one to whom the keys of the kingdom were given, the Lord said, you are not on the side of God, but of men, how much more of you and I, if we are not prepared for the principle of the cross in our lives and in our service, we are not only thinking as men think. If we refuse the principle of the cross, not only that the natural mind is governing us, but our so called service think of it can become ground for Satan. [00:48:32] Don't let anyone think that because you feel you're serving the Lord that service cannot become ground for Satan. There are always Judases, there are always Demoses, there are always Alexander the coppersmith. [00:48:53] There are plenty of them whose service becomes ground for Satan. [00:49:01] That is a most solemn thought. [00:49:07] How much of our Christian service is like that comes into that category? [00:49:16] Christ then annunciated the great principle of God's service in verse 34 and 35. It came out of this rebuke of Peter. [00:49:27] There is no other way for Satan's ground in you and me to be undercut, even if we're Christians, than by the cross. That is the only way it can be done. The natural man with the natural mind, with natural resources and natural energies is not God's ally, but more often than not is Satan's. [00:49:54] And it doesn't matter if it's a saved natural man. [00:50:00] Once we take over the mind of the flesh into the things of God. Oh, God only knows how his work has suffered from this kind of thing. The cross is the only safeguard to our service becoming self centered, self fulfilling and self interested. [00:50:24] Indeed, we can say quite plainly that there can be no really consistently selfless giving in service, no divine outflow of love in sacrificial giving, whether of one's being, one's time or one's money. [00:50:54] Unless the basis of our service is the crush. [00:51:00] We shall quibble and quibble and quibble and quibble. [00:51:07] Our service will be riddled with self interest. [00:51:14] Everything we do we will do grudgingly. Unless it so happens that it suits us. [00:51:21] And then we shall be quite delighted to do God's service. [00:51:28] But that is not God's service. [00:51:36] Those disciples might be able to preach, they might be able to heal, they might be able to perform many miracles to cast out even demons, all in Christ's name. And we saw that they did it in Mark 6, 7, 13. [00:51:52] They might even speak long and lovingly of their association with Christ over three years. [00:52:01] But they were not safe unless they knew the cross in an ever deeper and fuller way in their day to day experience. [00:52:13] Now listen. Even service begun in true devotion and from a pure heart can without the cross be turned into a means of self aggrandizement, self expression and self attraction. [00:52:35] Oh, you would only have to look out upon Christian work to see many a tombstone. [00:52:48] That in a sense Mark's service begun with devotional zeal but ended up for themselves. It is a terrible and frightening prospect that at any given time any one of us can take back our service for ourselves. [00:53:15] The Old Testament is filled with such examples and even the New Testament is. [00:53:24] The only safeguard is the cross. [00:53:31] Note carefully the way Christ explains the principle of the cross. He explains it in three terms. [00:53:42] First, if any man come after me, let him follow me. [00:53:51] If any man come after me, and then he said, let him give up all right to himself, take up his cross and follow me. Come after me and follow me. [00:54:10] So often we are found romancing about following Christ in the steps of the Master. [00:54:23] We kind of talk about it as if it is something sort of, oh well, I can't explain it. It's all very romantic and glamorous and sentimental. [00:54:38] Of course, let me say this. There is nothing more wonderful than to follow Christ for love of him. I mean that there is nothing more wonderful than to follow Christ for love of him. [00:54:53] Then his yoke is easy and his burden light. [00:54:59] There is joy in serving Jesus when you love Him. [00:55:05] It gilds everything with a halo. That's true. [00:55:10] And let me also hasten to say that there is life in following Jesus. Let us be absolutely clear on this. The whole point of following Christ is to come into resurrection life and power and joy unspeakable and full of glory and power. You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. [00:55:37] And increase and glory. [00:55:55] But the point is, how do we reach it? [00:56:07] How do we reach the resurrection, life and power? How do we come into real joy? The joy of the Lord your strength? How do we really know Increase? [00:56:19] It's not for nothing that the story of the transfiguration in glory follows this. It's the way to glory. [00:56:26] What the Lord was saying was this. Because the cross is the principle of my life. The Father can glorify me. [00:56:35] This is the kind of character he longs for. [00:56:38] This is the kind of thing that he can say, this is my beloved Son. Listen to him. [00:56:46] But how can we get to the glory? [00:56:51] How can we be changed from glory to glory? [00:56:57] How? [00:56:59] Through the cross. [00:57:02] To follow Christ means nothing less than treading the path he trod. [00:57:08] That's why the apostle Paul writing later said this. Have this mind in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought it not a thing to be grasped at, an equality with God, a thing to be grasped at. But humbled himself had that mind in you. [00:57:27] Let me ask you a question. [00:57:30] Can a child of God, a servant of the Lord, have followed Christ far without coming to the cross? [00:57:48] We do not follow very far as children of God, as servants of the Lord, before we see in our path the cross stark, bloody and inescapable. [00:58:11] Opt out and you opt out of love. [00:58:15] Opt out, you opt out of his service. Opt out, you opt out of increase. Opt out, you opt out of glory. [00:58:24] You will never lose your salvation, but you will lose your inheritance. [00:58:37] There is a cost attached to following Christ. [00:58:40] Don't we know it? [00:58:46] Come after me. [00:58:49] Let him come after me and follow me. [00:58:54] We are frightened of being broken. [00:59:01] We are frightened of the hand of God coming to the deepest part of our being and touching us. [00:59:11] If we could only get the joy and the power easier way, we will. [00:59:22] You will notice that the second way the Lord explains the principle of the cross is deny himself, Let him deny himself. As Phillips puts it, give up all right to himself. Let him give up all right to himself. As the New English Bible puts it, he must leave self behind. [00:59:44] That's what following Christ entails. [00:59:47] That's the character of true service. [00:59:50] Giving up all right to oneself, leaving self behind isn't the trouble in all Christian work and service ourselves because we don't leave it behind, we carry it into it. [01:00:09] Will you also note the word let him, Let him give up all right or he must give up all right to himself. He must leave self behind. [01:00:25] We have to make a cold blooded decision to let go of our self life. Now let me be quite clear on this. Let me be. If you're waiting for a flash of light, you'll wait till kingdom come. You'll get the light then, but it'll be too late. [01:00:45] You have got to come to a cold blooded, deliberate decision to let go of your life. God will do the rest. [01:00:52] But you have got to come to the place where you say I surrender. I break on this point. I yield on this point. Until a man or woman deliberately, just as the moment when they were converted, got on their knees and said, lord I believe I am a sinner, I take thee you must at the same just as deliberately say, lord, I yield on this matter of myself. Life. You can't do anything about it. My words, you can't. You can find that out. [01:01:22] But you've got to come sooner or later if you're going to go on with the Lord to that deliberate cold blooded decision. [01:01:33] Take up his cross. That's the third thing. [01:01:38] The cross of Christ made personal to him in his own life and circumstances. Is it not interesting? The Lord says take up his cross instead of take up my cross. [01:01:48] Of course he meant his own cross. [01:01:51] You see everyone, everyone who was crucified had to carry their cross. It was a form of humiliation. They carried the great crossbar, they didn't carry the stake, they carried the crossbar and round their neck hung the card which had the charge on it. [01:02:12] That's what the Lord meant. Go on, take up your cross. [01:02:22] Will you also note that you cannot take up your cross till you have left yourself behind. [01:02:28] There are two things that cannot go together. [01:02:31] The cross of Christ and your self life. [01:02:37] You have to leave self behind and take up your cross. [01:02:43] Now the issue is explained actually in the next verse, verse 35. The issue is whether to lose one's life for Christ's sake and the Gospels or to hold on to it. Isn't that true? [01:02:55] Every man or woman in this place is honest. That's the issue. [01:03:00] Whether to lose one's own life for his sake and the Gospel's or to hold on to it. That's the issue. [01:03:09] True service means a divine, divine carelessness about one's own self preservation and safety. [01:03:17] That's why the New English Bible puts it, he who loses his life is safe. [01:03:27] We see I think this whole thing exemplified completely in Christ Himself, in his whole life and service and death. He lost his life for God and for us, and thus gained it in an eternal harvest. [01:03:46] He calls on you and me to do precisely the same. Lose our lives for his sake and for others. [01:03:55] And he promises that if we lose our lives for his sake and for we shall surely same. [01:04:11] Now what does that mean? [01:04:15] Well, let's look on the other side. The dark side of the coin. It was this that occasioned the solemn warning that in holding on to our life, we in fact lose it. [01:04:29] How many Christians who listen to the gospel preached to the unsaved have ever realized that by holding onto their own lives, in fact they are losing them? [01:04:40] The very instinct of self preservation that makes us hold on to our self life, hold it back, because we are frightened of what it might cost us. In actual fact, we are losing the thing that way. There can be no resurrection life, no fullness of spiritual life, no realization of a harvest, no increase, no true power, no crown, no throne, no glory. [01:05:18] What have you got? A said soul. [01:05:24] You'll stand in the presence of God with nothing saved so as by fire. [01:05:36] To me, it is a touch of irony that the Lord called the multitude together and then preached the gospel to them, as it were. After this, he turned to them and said, what does it profit a man? As if to get this lesson into his own. What does it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own life? [01:05:58] What will a man give in exchange? All the disciples said, we're saved. [01:06:02] We're saved. We belong to him, the Messiah. [01:06:06] We're going to be in the kingdom. [01:06:09] Don't you see the tragedy of it all? We stand week after week preaching the gospel. We go out reaching people. And yet. And yet we are throwing away our lives because we are holding onto them instead of throwing our way, instead of throwing away our lives so that we find them. [01:06:41] That's why the Lord said in the verses, verse 37, 38, Whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation of him, will the Son of man also be ashamed? [01:06:59] Christ crucified the cross of Christ may be an offense, but it's the only way to glory. [01:07:08] You can understand how Peter felt the shame of it all. [01:07:15] The very shame of the words the Lord was using when he said, anyone who's ashamed of me and my words. [01:07:23] Can you talk like that, Lord? [01:07:27] It's humiliating. It's humiliating to hear you talk like it. [01:07:35] You see, when the Lord spoke of a cross, he spoke of a gentile form of execution that in the scripture was called a curse. [01:07:43] If he had only spoke of being stoned, at least that was a little better. [01:07:48] But he spoke of taking up your cross because I failed such a thing on his lips. [01:08:01] Well now, there we are. [01:08:04] Let me draw to a conclusion. [01:08:09] For many of us who would serve God, I believe it is not a question of willfully holding on to our life. [01:08:23] I know many of you, and you know me. [01:08:29] We are not deliberately and willfully holding on to hell as many of us. [01:08:37] Then why don't we let them go? Why don't we lose them? I'll tell you why, from my own bitter experience. [01:08:48] It is that we are frightened of the utterness of the challenge. [01:08:58] Christ does not just ask for some of our life. [01:09:03] He doesn't even ask for the most part of our life. [01:09:07] He asks for our life in its entirety. [01:09:12] And that's the thing that frightens us. [01:09:18] If he would only say, give me half your time, half your being, half your energies. [01:09:30] But he doesn't. [01:09:33] He calls on us to lose our self, life in its entirety. [01:09:40] The cross means all or nothing. [01:09:45] To follow Christ fully will cost us everything. Make no mistake about that. Any of you, young or old, make no mistake about it. To follow Christ will cost us everything. [01:10:03] But in following him he will lead us into life and safety and increase and glory, so that the Lord, as it were, says, if there's anyone who, like me, in faith, can lose their life, they can be assured of it coming back in fullness, in power, in joy, in a harvest, in glory. Isn't that what he meant when he said, there are some of you here. There are some of you here who shall not taste of death till you see the kingdom of God coming in power. What did he mean? He didn't mean, of course, the final coming of the Lord. [01:11:01] He meant the ascension. [01:11:04] You will live to see the Son of Man enter into his reign. The kingdom of God coming in power as at Pentecost, the authority of the Lamb. [01:11:17] You will live to see it. You will be broken. [01:11:23] You will lose your lives. That will be the cost of it, in fact, for all of them, except as far as we know, John, every one of them, according to tradition, died of martyr's death. [01:11:43] Now, there is a very real sense in which the feeding of the 5,000 with five loaves and two fishes, and the feeding of the 4,000 with seven loaves and a few fishes, so full of divine significance for the last section that we considered is also as much a lesson or is as full of divine significance for this. [01:12:25] Now, what do I mean? [01:12:27] Well, that picture of the feeding of the 5,000, of the feeding of the 4,000, which was the most significant of all the miracles in Christ's eyes that he performed most filled with divine meaning, is a picture of true service. [01:12:46] A hungry, empty, unhappy, dissatisfied wealth. [01:12:54] Five loaves, two fishes in the hands of the Messiah. [01:13:02] Now you say to me, but I don't quite understand. Well, now listen. We know from John 6 that the whole point of that parable is that he is the bread of life. [01:13:16] Then what do we. What do we learn? [01:13:18] The lesson we learned in the last section was this the discovery of the five loaves and two fishes. What do I mean? Do you also not understand? [01:13:29] What do you mean? [01:13:33] I mean this. [01:13:34] The discovery of the little that there is of Christ in you. [01:13:42] Let me ask you a question. Have you found the five loaves and two fishes in your life yet? [01:13:49] There's a hungry world all around you. [01:13:52] There's a famished world all around you. There's an empty world war. There's a dissatisfied world all around you. There's a risen Christ in the glory. Have you found the five loaves and the two fishes yet? [01:14:05] Are you trying to get it all other ways? [01:14:09] Have you found the little that there is of Christ, who is the bread of life? [01:14:15] Have you? [01:14:17] That was the lesson from the last section, the discovery of himself, however little the discovery of himself. Now the lesson of this section is the little that there is of Christ in you has got to be blessed, broken and given. I gave again and again and again. [01:14:43] That's the lesson that in the simplest form is the principle of the cry. [01:14:56] He blessed and he always blesses first. [01:15:00] Then he breaks. [01:15:04] No more an entity, but in pieces. [01:15:07] No more control over oneself, but broken. [01:15:12] He gives and gives and gives and gives. [01:15:21] And the little that there is of Christ in you feeds a multitude. [01:15:29] That is true service. [01:15:34] But I'm afraid that many of us are stuck on the breaking. [01:15:46] We can talk about the little that there is of Christ, but it's the breaking. Why don't you bring it to the Master, the little that there is, and say, lord, bless it. [01:16:02] It's the little I've got of yourself in me. Bless it, Lord, and break it and give it. [01:16:14] Shall we pray now? Beloved Lord, we pray together that Thou wilt meet us through this study so that, Lord, it's not just a question of words, not just a question of a study. And not just, Lord, the outlining of something that perhaps we've grown a little used to, Lord, but rather we pray that wherever there is a life not lost for Thee and for the gospel, wherever, Lord, there is a little of thyself discovered but not broken and given. [01:16:58] Wherever, Lord, there is some kind of holding back rights to ourselves. [01:17:08] Lord, we pray that by Thy Holy Spirit thou wilt speak to us and give us the power and enabling to let go and to take up our cross and follow Thee. [01:17:24] We ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus, amen.